Yarn feeding mechanism for straight knitting machines



G. GASTRICH May 28,1940.

YARN FEEDING MECHANISM FDR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES Filed June 24, 1933 9 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR; e Gusfiwiasii'wk,

A TTORNE G. GASTRICH 2,202,521 v YARNYFEEDINGY MECHANI-SMIFOR STRAIGHT KNITTING-MACHINES" May 28,1940.

FiledJune 24, 195:5 9 Shets-Sheefo 2 INVENTOR.

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BY W ATTORNE 28, 1940. e. GASTRICHY YARN FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES Fil'ed June 24', 1933 9 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN V EN TOR.

' ATTORN y 28, 1940- G. GASTRICH v 2,202,521

YARN FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES Filed June 24, 1933 9 Sheets-Sheet '4 TI -GAB- INVENTOR;

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May 28, 1940. s. GAsTRlC lH 2,202,521

I I YARN FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES Filed June 24, 1933 9 Sheets-Sheet 5 Wlll.

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M y 28, 1940- ca. GASTRICH 2,202,521

YARN FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES I FiledJune 24, 1933 9 Sheets-Sheet 6 IN VENTOR.

May 28, 1940. 5 2,202,521

YARN FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES Filed June 24, 1953 9 Sheets-Sheet ,7

Til-EH51- INVENTOR:

81 W ATTORNE May 28, G 'GA$TR]H 2,202,521

YARN FEEDINGMECHANISM FQR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES Filed June 24, 1955 '9 Sheets-Sheet 9 w Zf fl L i;

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INVENTOR:

A TTORNE Patented May 28,

UNITED STATES YARN FEEDING MECHANISM FOR STRAIGHT KNITTING MACHINES Gustav Gastrich, Wyomissing, Pa., assignor to Textile Machine Works, Wyomissing, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application June 24, 1933, Serial No. 677,443

8 Claims.

This invention relates to mechanism for selectively actuating yarn carriers in knitting machines in predetermined order. in succeeding courses of a fabric during the knitting thereof, and is particularly applicable to knitting machines of the type employed to knit articles, such as ladies silk stockings, from yarn which varies in evenness or exhibits different characteristics in various lengths thereof tending to detrimentally affect the appearance of the knitted article.

The thread silk from which hosiery and similar articles of wearing apparel are knit is graded according to its evenness," expressed in percentage, the silk varying from 68% evenness, usually regarded as a low grade silk, to 92% which is an extra fine grade. Not only does thread silk of different grades differ in evenness, but in silk of the same grade there is often a variation in evenness of the yarn, and various lengths of the yarn, often several yards long, will have a diameter either greater or less than the average diameter of the yarn, this condition occurring at more or less regular intervals throughout the yarn.

In the production of hosiery, particularly ladies stockings, this variation in evenness of the silk frequently causes one or more coursewi se extending rings or bands to appear in the stocking which differ in shading and appearance from the body of the stocking these effects being especially noticeable when the stocking is stretched on the leg of the wearer. The number of stockings showing the effects of variation in evenness often reaches large proportions, resulting in an excessive number of "seconds, thus materially increasing the cost of manufacture of the stockings and substantially curtailing production.

The foregoing effects in variation of evenness.

may be minimized or prevented by knitting the stocking or other article from two or more separate main body yarns of the samegrade and kind, the yarns being alternately employed in succeeding courses throughout substantially the entire stocking length, whereby the variation in even-; ness in any particularlength of one of the yarns;

is compensated for and its effect minimized by the adjacent yarn .or yarns, and thus the overall effect is free from rings or other noticeable effects ordinarily caused by variation in evenness of the silk.

One object of the invention, therefore, is to provide suitable mechanism for automatically alternating in predetermined order two or more.

yarn carriers feeding separate yarns respectively in succeeding courses of a fabric during the knitting thereof.

fashioned. stocking knitting machine embodying the friction box to successively engage and 6 actuate said carrier rods in predetermined order.

Another object resides in carrier control mechanism of the character-described having the form of an attachment which may be used with standardtypes of straight knitting machines without 10 entailing changes in the construction or manner of operation of the machines, which attachment is simple in construction andmay readily be applied to existing installations.

A further object of the invention resides in the device of the character described which operates generally in the manner of the usual friction box. and which is controlled by cam operated means without requiring a pattern chain or similar mechanism, and which does not interfere in any manner with the usual operation of the machine in the production of either plain knit or special loop fabrics.

An additional object is to provide automatic mechanism for alternating two or more yarn carriers feeding separate yarns in predetermined order, in which each of said carriers may be operatively engaged by the mechanism at opposite sides of the knitting section in succeeding courses, respectively, whereby a single course of anyone of said yarns may be produced intermediate adjacent courses of another yarn or yarns without recourse to an idle course motion.

. With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent from the following detailed. 36 description of the illustrative embodiments of the invention shown'in-the accompanying-drawings, my invention resides in the ndvelfelemehts of H construction, mechanisms and combination of more particularly pointed out in theclaims.

In thefdrawings:

Fig. 1 is a parti al frontiplan view of afull my invention: v I I Fig.2 is a fragmentary front plan view of varione friction boxes employed for connecting the yarn carrier rods to the friction rodin the machine of Fig 1';

I .Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of theknitting' machine taken. substantially along the line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig, 4 is a fragmentary sectional detail view taken substantially as indicated along the line 4-4 of Fig. 1, showing only the narrowing machine lift mechanism;

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view, taken substantially along the line 5--5 of Fig. 1, showing various details of one form of yarn carrier control device in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 6 is a detail view of certain cam members shown in Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a front view, looking in the direction of the arrow A in Fig. 5, showing details of the carrier control device;

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view of latch structure for holding the carrier control device in inactive position;

Fig. 13 is a cross sectional view taken along the line l3--l3 of Fig. 1, showing details of certain stop elements employed with my device;

Fig. 14 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along the line l4--l4 of Fig. 13;

Fig. 15 is a fragmentary view, similar to Fig. 5, of a modified form of carrier control device;

Fig. 16 is a fragmentary view, similar to Fig. 15, of a further modification of the control device;

Fig. 17 is a detail view, similar to Fig. 9,- of certain ratchet elements employed in combination with the modified form of control device shown in Figs. 15 and 16;

Fig. 18 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along the line l8-l8 of Fig. 1'7;

Fig, 19 is a view of the structure of Fig. 17 in a different operating position;

Fig. 20 is a perspective view of certain parts involved in laying three yarns alternately in succeeding courses of a fabric during the knitting thereof;

Fig. 21 is a front perspective view of a full fashioned stocking produced on a machine embodying the carrier control device shown in Figs. 1 to 14;

Fig. 22 is a diagrammatic view of the flat knitted blank of the stocking of Fig. 21;

Fig. 23 is an enlarged diagrammatic view of the loop formation of the fabric of Figs. 21 and 22;

Fig. 24 is an enlarged diagrammatic view of the loop formation of a fabric produced with the modified form of carrier control device shown in Fig 15;

Fig. 25 diagrammatically illustrates the movements of the yarn carriers in knitting the stocking of Figs. 21 and 22;

Fig. 26 diagrammatically illustrates the movements of the yarn carriers with the control device of Figs. 15, 17, 18 and.19;

Fig. 27 diagrammatically illustrates the movements of the yarn carriers when using the control device of Figs. 16 to 19 inclusive.

Figs. 1 to 20 disclose various parts of a Reading full fashioned stocking knitting machine embodying the mechanism and elements of my invention. For the sake of clearness I have illustrated only those parts of the various mechanisms necessary for an understanding of the in- .ventio'n; the various-other parts and mechanisms and their manner of operation are well known in the art, and are shown and described in detail in the Reading full fashioned knitting machine catalogue (copyright 1929) published by the Textile Machine Works, Reading, Pennsylvania.

Referring particularly to Figs. 1 and 3, the machine is shown as comprising a frame of conventional construction including front and back beams l0 and II, front and center beds l2 and I3, and end and center frames l4 and 15. The power mechanism includes the main cam shaft I6 associated with the usual cam shaft shiftin device B manipulated by the usual chain motion mechanism C. The main shaft carries the usual cams for the various motions and attachments, certain of which cams have been omitted from Fig. 1 for the sake of clarity. The cams shown include the narrowing head actuating cams IT, shogging cams l8 and I9, narrowing lift cams 20, and cams 22 and 23 for actuating the carrier control device hereinafter described. The cam shaft is driven by a prime mover, such as an electric motor, through a suitable clutch connection in the usual manner.

The chain motion mechanism C, Fig. l, is of the usual construction, comprising a pattern chain 24 travelling around a power drum or sprocket 25, and having suitable buttons 26 clamped thereon adapted to lift, in preselected courses, a lock lever 21 pivotally mounted on stud shaft 28. The cam shaft I6 is shifted to the right for narrowing or other purposes, in a manner well known in the art, whenever the buttons 26 strike the lock lever and raise it out of a groove 29 in main stud 30 as the buttons pass around the sprocket wheel 25, at which time the main stud is released and is pulled inwardly by a contractile spring 32; this brings the cam roller 33, which revolves freely on the end of the main stud 36, into contact with the side face of the right side shifting cam I9, shifting the cam shaft inch, or the width of one cam, to the right, and causing rollers 34 carried "by levers 35 to engage the narrowing left earns 20 on the cam shaft, thus imparting, through lift levers 36 pivotally connected to the front narrowing shaft 31, Figs. 3 and 4, the necessary vertical movement to the narrowing mechanism, the shaft 31 being connected by guide arms 3| to the rear narrowing shaft 2| in the usual manner.

After the cam shaft has made one revolution and the narrowing or other loop shifting operation has been completed, the main stud 30 is returned to its original position when the cam piece 38 strikes a roller 39 and moves guide bracket 40 out, and lock lever 21 falls in the groove 29 of the main .stud and locks it in its regular posi tion. This causes the cam roller 33 to be brought into operative engagement with the left side shifting cam l8, and the cam shaft is shifted to the left returning to the plain knitting position shown in Fig. 1, in which position the rollers 34 of the narrowing lift levers 35 are in engagement with round idle cams 4| and thus no movement is imparted to the narrowing mechanism. In Fig. 3 the narrowing lift cam and lever members 20, 34, 25 and 4| shown are in the section broken away in Fig. 1 at the right hand end of the machine and therefore do not show in Fig. 1, but it will be understood that these elements are identical with those shown in Fig. 4.

The narrowing heads D at opposite ends of the machine are of the usual construction, each comprising a ratchet device 42 actuated by a lever 43 carrying a. roller 44 which, when the cam shaft is. shifted to the right in the manner above described, engages the narrowing head actuating cams H. The ratchet device 42 is operatively associated with the usual ratchets 45 and 46 mounted on the narrowing rod and carrier rod spindles 41 and 48, respectively. The narrowing heads cofunction in the usual manner to control the position of the usual narrowing rods 49, 50, Figs. 3 and 4, and the narrowing fingers or combs carried thereby, and also to control the traverse of the yarn carrier rods Nos. 1 to 8 inclusive in the well known manner, i. e., the spindles 41 of the narrowing rods and their associated devices intermittently rack the narrowing fingers in each knitting section inwardly during the narrowing operations in the production of plain knit fabric, and the yarn carrier spindles 48 control the position of the various end stops 52 to progressively decrease the traverse of the yarn carrier rods which carry the yarn carriers Nos. la to So respectively. The carrier rods are supported in brackets Figs. 3 and 5, which form an angle of approximately 40 degrees with the horizontal in order that all carriers Ia to Sc may be approximately the same length and thus eliminate the vibration attendant to a long horizontal carrier section. a i

The row of needles 53, Figs. 3, 7 and20, of each knitting section are supported in the needle bar 54 which is given the necessary verticaland horizontal movements by the needle bar actuating levers 55, 56 controlled by needle lever'and presser lever cams on the main cam shaft in the well known manner. The sinker and divider mechanism is of'the usual construction comprising sinkers 51 and dividers 59 mounted in a sinkerhead 59; it will be understood that the sinkers and dividers are operated in proper time relation to enable the needles to form loops and to cofunction withthe yarn carrier control mechanism hereinafter described.

In the illustrative embodiment shown in the drawings, the yarn carrier control mechanism, Figs. 1 to 3 and 5 to 7, comprises a special main friction box 60 which is common to a plurality of yarn carrier rods, a rotatable splined shaft63 carrying pattern cams 64 and 65 for actuating a lever member 66 carried by the friction box to different operative positions for selectively connecting any of said carrier rods to the friction rod 61, and a ratchet device 68 controlled by cam 23'on the main cam shaft for rotating the cams 64 and 65 thereby to reciprocate said'yarn carrier rods alternately in predetermined order in succeeding courses of the fabric during the knitting thereof.

Referring particularly to Figs; 5, 6 and 7 the friction box 69 is shown as comprising friction shoes 69, carrying leather strips 12 engaging the friction rod 61, the pressure on said shoes beingmaintained by means of a bowed spring 13 which coacts with the upper shoe 69 and a U-shaped bracket 14 to exert pressure on the friction shoes when the handle a of the clamping lever 15 is thrown in such position (to the right as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2) as to cause a cam surface 15b to exert pressure on the spring 13, thereby causing the friction box to engage the friction rod in slidable frictional gripping engagement therewith in the usual manner. to and extending from the friction box housing 16 is a bracket structure 11 having two arms 11a, 17b between which is mounted, by means of a shaft 18 rotatably mounted inthe two arms, the lever member 66 which is thereby adapted to be rotated through a limited angle to different op- Secured erative positions relative to the yarn carrier rods. The various positions of the lever 66 are determined by the contour of the cams 64 and 65 which engage rollers 19 and 80 carried by the lever, the lever being rotatedor oscillated to different positions by rotation of the cams in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 6.

The lever 66 has bifurcatedportions 66a, 66b, between which is slidably mounted a member 82 secured to a rod 83 slidable in the boreof the lever. The slide member 82 is adapted, through manipulation of the rod 93 and hand lever 84, to be lowered into the position shown in the drawings to enable one or the other of the selector members, or tongues, 85, 86 to selectively engage rods to impart the reciprocating movement of dogs 81, 8 8 and B9 on certain of the yarn carrier I the friction rod to a selected carrier rod in laying the yarn for any given course. A spring pressed detent ball 99 adapted to engage detents in rod 83 serves to hold the slide 82 in either active or inactive position relative to the dogs on the carrier rods. Thus, if the hand lever 84 is pulled to raise the slide to aposition such that the tongues 85, 86will clear the dogs on the carrier rods, the rods may be independently connected to the friction rodby the usualfriction boxes,'such as boxes 92a to 92d shown in Fig. 2, any one of which may be made individual to any carrier rod by positioning its slide 93 so asto engage with a dog on the selected rod in the well known manner.

When it is desired to alternately reciprocate a plurality of yarn carrier rods, forexample, Nos. 2, 3 and 5, the slideis lowered to its operative position, as shown, the position of the rotatable lever relative to the respective yarn: carrier rods being determined by the position of the earns 64 and 65 relative to rollers 19 and 90. In the position shown in Figs. 5 to 7, the rollers are in contact with the cams 64 and 65 at the points and M respectively, Fig. 6, at which time the lever 66 has been rotated .to a position such that the tongue 85 on the slide engages the dog 81 on'yarn carrier rod No. 2; rotation of the shaft 63 and earns 64 and 65 in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in Figs. 5 and 6, causes the cams to engage the rollers at the points 50 and 5d respectively, in which position'the lever 66 has been rotated in a clockwise direction to a position such that tongue 85 is released from dog 81 on carrier rod 2 and tongue 86 engages the dog 88 on No. 3 carrier rod; further rotation of the shaft 63 and cams 64, 65 causes the cams to engage the rollers at the points 3c and 3d respectively, in which position the lever 66 has been rotated in a counterclockwise direction to a position such that the tongue 86 is disengaged from dog 88 and engages dog 89 on carrier rod No. 5. Continued rotation of the shaft 63 and cams 64 and 65 causes the foregoing cycle of operation to be repeated, thus enabling three main yarns of the same grade and kind to be alternately laid in succeeding courses, whereby the effect of variation in evenness in any one of the yarns will be compensated for or minimized by the adjacent yarns,'so that the overall effect is free from rings or other noticeable effects ordinarily caused by variation in evenness of the silk.

As shown in Figs. 5 and 7, the cams 64 and have extending sleeve' portions 95 and 96 forming bearings for the cams which are slidable along the splined shaft 63, the key 91 of the shaft preventing rotation of the'cams relative to the shaft. The sleeve portions of the cams are journalled in bearings 98 and 99 extending from bracket", and endwise movement of the sleeves in their bearings is prevented by collars Ill and I32 secured, as by machine screws, to the sleeves, The foregoing arrangement permits free sliding movement of the cams along the shaft 53, the cams moving in unison with the friction box and being reciprocated thereby across the knitting field.

The shaft 63 may be mounted in bearings I33, I04, I05, Fig. 1, secured to the machine frame in any suitable manner, as by extending the bushing I06, Figs. 11 and 12, of the friction rod bearing I01 carried by the friction rod bracket I33 which also provides a support for the friction box guide rod I09. Mounted on the extension of the bushing I06, and clamped thereto by a set screw III), is a bracket II2 having an extending lug H3 and set screw I for engaging the friction rod bracket- |II8 and having another lug H5 and screw I I8 for engaging the friction box guide rod I09, thereby to securely clamp the bearing I33 in proper position. A collar I I1 secured to the shaft 63 prevents endwise movement of the shaft in one direction, and movement in the opposite direction is prevented by a dished resilient metal friction disk I it having a central opening through which a reduced portion I I9 of the shaft 53 extends, the disk member being locked by nuts I23 against a shoulder portion I2I of the shaft so that it rotates therewith. The disk has a leather washer I22 riveted thereto which bears against the end of bearing I03, the assembly providing a friction brake which prevents over-travel of the shaft 53 during rotation thereof. The shaft is supported at its other end by a bearing I35, Fig. 1, which may conveniently be secured to the splicing stop bracket I23 which'carries splicing blocks commonly employed to limit the travel of splicing carriers in the well known manner. An intermediate bearing IIM is secured to a friction rodbearing in the manner of bearing I33. A hand wheel I24 is secured to the shaft 63 to permit manual rotation of the shaft.

The rotation of the cams Cl and 65 by the ratchet device 68 in proper time relation with respect to the various other mechanisms of the knitting machine is effected by means of a cam moving in time relation to the rotational movement of the cam shaft, or to the movement of the loop forming mechanism, such as the cam 23, Figs. 1 and 3, on the machine cam shaft I6, acting through roller I25 carried by a lever I25 pivotally mounted at I21 to a bracket member I28 secured to the rear rail It, the lever I26 being pivotally connected at I29 to an upright lever I30. The lever I30 is pivotally connected by means of a stud I3I, Figs. 9 and 10, to a bracket member I32 carried by and freely rotatable on shaft 53. The bracket I32 carries a pawl l33 pivotally mounted on a stud 534 secured to the bracket, the pawl being held into engagement with a ratchet I35 by means of a contractile spring 38. The ratchetis fastened to shaft 63 by a set screw I31 so that as the ratchet is stepped around by the pawl the shaft 63 will be stepped around accordingly. If desired, the pawl may be thrown out of engagement with the ratchet by means of the handle I38 secured to the pawl, the handle and pawl being turned in a clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 9, until the handle strikes a stop 39, in which position the spring l 36 will hold the pawl out of engagementmith the ratchet.

Rotation of the machine cam shaft l6 causes rotation of the shaft 63 and cams 64 and 65 carried thereby in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in Figs. 3, 5, 6 and 9, when the cam 23 passes from its low point :i: to the high point 1!, this movement raising roller I25 and rotati the lever. I26 and bracket I32, Fig. 9, in a counterclockwise direction, and causing pawl I33 to 1'0- tate from the position shown in full lines in the figure to the position indicated by dotted lines, thus stepping the ratchet I35 and shaft 53 around in a counterclockwise direction to a new position with each revolution of the cam shaft I5 when in the plain knitting position shown in Fig. 1. The cams 54 and 55, Figs. 5 and 6, are thus intermittently rotated in a counterclockwise direction and oscillate the lever 65 to different operative positions in succeeding courses, respectively, as the fabric is knit, thereby alternating the yarns in predetermined order.

The bracket II and cams 64 and 55 are reciprocated along the splined shaft 53 in accordance with the reciprocating movement of the friction rod 61 and friction box 53, and the lever 55 and tongues and 35 carried thereby may be rotated or oscillated to different operative positions at each side of the knitting section, so that the carriers may be engaged or disengaged at either side of the section, and thus a single course of any one of the yarns fed by the carriers may be produced without the necessity of using an idle course motion to return the friction box to the opposite side of the section to engage the next carrier.

When the cam shaft is in shifted position, as during narrowing or other loop shifting operation, the cam 22, Figs. 1 and 3, is in engagement with roller I25; cam 22 is smaller than cam 23 so that the pawl I33, Fig. 9, is not rotated to step the ratchet I35 around, the pawl havinga slight overtravel relative to the ratchet teeth, aswill be seen from the figure, so that any slight movement thereof caused by cam ,22 will not change the position of the ratchet.

In order to prevent misalignment of the dogs 81, 83, 33 relative to the tongues 85 and 36 of lever 55 caused by rebound of the carrier rods when their travel is arrested by striking the usual end stops 52, there are provided, Figs. 1, 13 and 14, special rebound preventing devices comprising, in the illustrative form shown, plate members I40 secured to the carrier rods near each end thereof, and spring pressed plungers I42 with tapered surfaces or detents 3420 which engage, at the end of the travel of the carrier rods, complementary surfaces Min of recesses or notches I in the plate members and prevent rebound of the carrier rods. Preferably, and as seen in Fig. 14, when the carrier rod is at the end of its travel the surface 2a of each plunger engages only that surface Mia which is adjacent the end of the carrier rod, thereby to prevent lost motion between these members due to wear or other cause in service, and obviating the necessity of fine adjustment of the members relative to each other. The depth of the recesses l4! and the taper of the surfaces Mia and 142a is such as to readily permit movement of the carrier rods when connected to the friction rod for reciprocation therewith. The plunger or detent members 2 are enclosed in housings 153 which may conveniently be clamped to the arresting lever brackets M4 carrying arresting levers I45, I48 commonly employed to give certain of the yarn carriers a predetermined lead with respect to the sinkers, the brackets M4 being connected to the narrowing nuts 51 on the yarn carrier spindles 48 so as to move with the end stops 52 in the well known manner.

,the fabric in which the effects due to variation in evenness are to be avoided.

Fig. 27 is a diagrammatic representation of the path of travel of the yarn carriers in a further modification of the carrier control device shown in Fig. 16, are employed to form-the main body yam .of the stocking, with the respective carriers l, 3 and 5 starting from the same side of the knitting section, and actuated in preselected Order as determined by the contour of cams 6lb,.65b, each carrier laying the yarn for two adjacent courses of the stocking, generally in the manner shown in Fig. 2'7.

As shown in Fig. 27, the yarn in the first two courses is laid by No. lcarrier; in the next two courses the yarn is laid by No. 3 carrier; and in the succeeding two courses the yarn is laid by No. 5 carrier, this cycle of operation of the carriers being repeated throughout substantially the length of the stocking.

Preferably, although not necessarily, two cams 64, 65 are employed so that the lever 66 is positively actuated in either direction of its movement by a cam surface, thus obviating the necessity of biasing the lever 66 into engagement with its actuating cam by a spring or other means, as would be required if one cam only was used.

While the invention is particularly applicable to silk yarn, it is also applicable to various other kinds of yarn or thread, such as artificial silk, cotton, or other yarn in which variation in appearance of different lengths of the yarn tends to detrimentally affect the appearance of the articles knit therefrom. The invention is obviously not limited to stockings, since various other articles of wearing apparel may be knit by the use of carrier control mechanism of the character herein disclosed to thereby prevent or minimize undesirable effects caused by variations in evenness or appearance of the yarn employed.

The operation of the carrier control mechanism herein disclosed has been described in connection with the use of a plurality of separate yarns of the same grade and kind in succeeding courses of the fabric, but it is to be understood that the mechanism may be employed for automatically actuating selected yarn carriers in predetermined order in succeeding courses of the fabric, regardless of the purpose for which the respective yarns are employed and irrespective of the nature of the yarns, for example, the mechanism may be employed for striping. plating, or for various other purposes in which selected courses have yarns of specifically different characteristics, and the selected yarn carriers may be caused to traverse either the entire knitting field or a portion thereof only, dependent upon the purpose for which the yarns are used, the aforesaid limited traverse of the yarn carriers being obtainable by various well known mechanisms in the art adapted to arrest the carriers short of their usual traverse.

In the illustrative embodiment illustrated, the leg and foot portions of the stocking are knit on separate machines, viz., a legger and a footer, but it will be understood that the stocking or other article may or may not be fashioned, and may be produced on single unit machines or on various other machines of the type in which a plurality of yarn carriers may be selectively reciprocated across the knitting field.

Of course, the improvements specifically shown and described, by which I obtain the above results may be changed or modified in various ways within which three separate yarns carrier bars with yarn out departing from the scope of the invention herein described and hereinafter claimed.

I claim:

1. A full fashioned stocking knitting machine comprising, in combinatio a machine cam shaft, a plurality of yarn carrier rods, yarn carriers on said rods respectively feeding separate yarns, a friction rod, a friction box on said rod having a member movably mounted thereon for selective engagement with any of said carrier rods, means including a rotatable shaft having pattern cam structure thereon for actuating said movable member into engagement with said carrier rods in predetermined order in succeeding courses of the fabric, said pattern cam structure being journalled to the friction box, and means including a cam on the machine cam shaft individual to said pattern cam structure for actuating said pattern cam structure to different operative positions.

2. A full fashioned stocking knitting machine comprising, in combination, a plurality of yarn carrier rods, yarn carriers on said rods respectively feeding separate yarns, a friction rod, a friction box on said rod having a member movably mounted thereon for selective engagement with any of said yarn carrier rods,-and means including a rotatable splined shaft having pattern cam structure slidably mounted thereon, said cam structure being journalled to the friction box and actuating the movable member into engagement with said carrier rods in predetermined order in succeeding courses of the fabric.

3. A full fashioned stocking knitting machine comprising, in combination, a machine cam shaft, a plurality of yarn carrier rods, yarn carriers on said rods respectively feeding separate yarns, a

' friction rod, a friction box on said rod having a member movably mounted thereon forselective engagement with any one of said carrier rods. means including a rotatable shaft having ratchet structure and a pattern cam thereon for actuating said movable member into engagement with said carrier rods in predetermined order in succeeding courses of the fabric, said pattern cam being journalled to the friction box, and a second cam member rotating in correspondence with the machine cam shaft for actuating said ratchet structure thereby to diflerent operative positions.

4. A full-fashioned stocking knitting machine comprising, a pattern chain, a plurality of yarn carriers thereon, a friction rod, a friction box for connecting the carrier bars with said rod, selector control mechanism carried by the friction box and including an actuating element and a selector positioned by said element for engaging a bar tobe traversed, an axially fixed shaft whereon said element is splined, a ratchet fast on said shaft, a movable pawl engaging the ratchet, means subject to governance by the pattern chain for controlling the motion of said pawl, and means on the shaft adapted to be moved, incident to the turning of said shaft in positioning the actuating element, tohold the shaft against rotational drifting.

5. In a full fashioned knitting machine, the combination of a rotatable and axially shiftable cam -shaft,a plurality of yarn carrier rods, yarn carriers on said rods respectively feeding separate yarns, a reciprocable friction rod and a friction box on said rod, a movable member carried by said friction box for selectively connecting any one of said carriers to said friction rod for reciprocation therewith, and selector mechanism .for causing said movable member to automatirotate the pattern cam into In order that the friction box 60 may be initially positioned so that the tongues on the slide 82 will be in register with the dogs on certain of the carrier rods preparatory to putting the carrier control device into operation, there is provided an adjustable stud I 47, Figs. 7 and 8, carried by a boss I48 on the friction box, and adapted to abut the friction rod bearing IIfla to properly position the friction box with those carriers which initially start from the right hand side of the knitting section. When the friction box Bil is not in use it is held at the right hand side of the section by a hand operated latch I 49 pivotally mounted on bearing I04, Fig. 8, the latch having a slot I49a adapted to engage a lug I 50 clamped to the boss I48 by means of the lock nut I5! on the stud M7. The spring I52 holds the latch in either engaged or disengaged position, the upper limit of travel of the latch being determined by a lug I 53 extending from bearing tilt.

The friction box also carries a lever I55, Figs. 3 and 7, pivotally mounted at I5t to lugs I5? on the friction box housing and adapted to be thrown into engagement with shock absorber rods I 58 and co-acting therewith in the usual manner for progressively decreasing the speed of the carrier rods 2, 3 and '5 near the end of their stroke to reduce the shock attendant to striking the end stops 52.

Fig. 21 shows a full fashioned silk stocking produced with the carrier control mechanism hereinbefore described, the stocking having a welt I60, a leg portion IIil, instep I62, heel I63, sole I64 and toe I35.

Figs. 20, 22 and 25 illustrate the operation of the mechanism in knitting the blank of the stocking of Fig. 21, in which three main yarn carriers are used to form the main body yarn of the stocking welt and leg.

In Fig. 22 the horizontal lines between the picot edge I66 and the end of the instep I62 diagrammatically represent the path of travel of the main yarn carriers. The arrows on the lines indicate the direction of travel of the yarn carriers in successive courses,'shown in this instance as carriers Nos. 2, 3 and 5, although various other through carriers may be employed, if desired. Fig. 20 shows the yarn box I61 partially broken away to disclose three bobbins feeding silk yarns 2b, 3b and 5b of the same grade and kind, the yarns passing over moistening troughs I68 and through snappers I69 to their respective carriers 2a, 3a and 5a. The method of controlling the carriers in succeeding courses throughout the fabric is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 25, and is as follows:

One of the carriers, for example, No. 3 carrier, is engaged by the tongue 86 of the movement imparting lever 66 and is caused to transverse the knitting field from left to right and lay the yarn carried by it to form a course 3b, Fig. 23, while Nos. 2 and 5 carriers are waiting at the right and left sides respectively of the knitting section. After the loops of the course 3b have been formed and before laying the yarn for the succeeding course 2b, the cams 64 and 65, Figs. 5 and 6, are rotated in a counterclockwise direction so that the tongue 86 of lever 66 is disengaged from carrier No. 3, and tongue 85 rotated into engagement with carrier No. 2 so that this carrier lays the yarn from right to left while Nos. 5 and 3 carriers remain at opposite sides respectively of the knitting section. After the loops of the'course 2b have been formed and before the yarn is laid for the succeeding course 5b, the cams 64 and 65 are again rotated so that the tongue 86 engages No. 5 carrier, thus causing this carrier to lay the yarn from left to right for the succeeding course, Nos. 2 and 3 carriers remaining inactive at this time. The cycle of operation of the carriers is now repeated in the succeeding three courses,

each yarn carrier travelling in an opposite direction from that of the carrier travelling in the pre ceding course since the carriers successively start from opposite sides of the knitting section.

It will be understood that it may be unnecessary to alternate the yarns in various portions of the stocking, for example, in the welt, or in the heel and foot portion, wherein the effects of variation in evenness of the silk will not be observable or, if observable, will not be objectionable; and that for various purposes it may be desirable to have certain areas only ofthe stocking or article knit from a plurality of main yarns as above described.

Figs. and 17 to 19 show a modified form of the control device employed when two main yarns only are used. The cycle of operation of the two yarn carriers is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 26, and is as follows:

One of the carriers, for example No. I carrier, is engaged by the tongue 85a of the movement imparting lever 82a and is caused to traverse the knitting field from left to right and lay the yarn carried by it to form a course Ib, Fig. 24, and in the succeeding course Ic the carrier is caused to traverse the knitting field from right to left, thus forming two adjacent courses I b, Ic from the yarn fed by No. I carrier, No. 3 carrier remaining at this time at the left hand side of the knitting section. Actuation of the cams 65a and 65a, which have a suitable contour for determining the throw of the lever 82a for engagement with the selected carrier rods, must be prevented after the yarn for the first course Ib is laid in order to enable the same yarn to be laid for the succeeding course Ic. In order to provide for an idle movement of the pawl I33a in alternate courses of the fabric, there is provided an idle ratchet wheel I'III adjacent the ratchet I35a, which member I'III is mounted to be freely rotatable on shaft 63 and having teeth I 10a so arranged as to prevent the pawl I33a from dropping into the teeth of the ratchet I35a, as shown in Fig. 19, except in alternate courses. Thus, the wheel I10 has every other notch therein sufficiently deep to enable the pawl to engage the teeth of ratchet I35a, as shown in Fig. 1'7, for actuation of the cams 64a, 65a, but

alternate notches I10a of the wheel are not sufiiciently deep to enable the pawl to engage ratchet I35a and thus the ratchet and earns 62a, 65a are actuated in alternate courses, or during every other revolution of the machine cam shaft. A detent III, freely rotatable on friction box guide rod I09, is biased into engagement with the teeth of wheel E70 by means of a contractile spring I12, and prevents overtravel of the wheel during rotation thereof.

In the succeeding two courses 3b, 30, No. I carrier remains at the left hand side of the knitted section and No. 3 carrier is engaged by the tongue 85a and is caused to travel from left to right in one course and return in the succeeding course 30, thus forming the courses 3b, 30 from the yarn fed from No. 3 carrier. The cycle of operation of the two yarn carriers is repeated in succeeding courses, and in this manner the yarns fed from Nos. I and 3 carriers are caused to alternate in successive courses throughout those portions of cally engage and reciprocate said yarn carrier rods in predetermined order in succeeding courses of the fabric during the knitting thereof; said selector mechanism comprising a first cam structure carried by and rotating with said cam shaft, a second cam structure journalled to the friction box and actuated by the first cam structure, and cam follower means for, said second cam structure operatively connected with said movable member for positioning the same relative to said 7 carrier rods, said second cam structure determining the throw of said movable member thereby to determine which of said carrier rods shall be engaged by the movable member in preselected courses, respectively.

6. In a straight knitting machine, the combination of a plurality of yarn carrier rods, yarn carriers on said rods respectively feeding separate yarns, a friction rod, a friction box on said rodl, a movement imparting member operatively connected with said friction rod for selective engagement with any of said yarn carrier rods, means journalled to the friction box for causing said member to automatically engage and reciprocate said yarn carrier rods in predetermined order in succeeding courses of the fabric, means comprising stop members for limiting the traverse of said carrier rods, and means comprising resilient plunger members having tapered surfaces adapted to engage complemental tapered surfaces on the carrier rods for preventing rebound of the carrier rods when arrested by said stop members.

7. A carrier bar operating attachment for full fashioned hosiery knitting machines comprising,

in combination, a power device, a set of yarn carrier bars, a friction box rod, a friction box fric- "tionally mounted on said rod, a member mounted on said box to oscillate in a plane transverse to said bars, tongues on said member spaced in the path of motion of the member, each of said tongues adapted to act in both directions of motion of said box to drive one or other of said bars, and operating mechanism for said member adapted to move said tongues selectively intoand out of locking engagement with the carrier bars at the end of travel of said friction box in either direction, said mechanism connected to said friction box to travel therewith and periodically operated by said power device.

8. A carrier bar operating attachment for full fashioned hosiery knitting machines comprising, in combination, a power device, a set of yarn carrier bars, a friction box rod, a friction box frictionally mounted on said rod, a member mounted on said box to oscillate in a plane transverse to said bars, tongues on said member spaced in the path of motion of the member, each of said tongues adapted to act in both directions of motionof said box to drive one or other of said bars, and operating mechanism for said member adapted to move said tongues selectively into and out of driving engagement with the carrier bars at the end of travel of said friction box in either direction, said mechanism connected to be periodically operated by said power device.

GUSTAV GASTRICH. 

